Drudge Washington: Did Big Brother Raise Funds?

Share

Drudge Washington: Did Big Brother Raise Funds?

The White House denies a report in Thursday's Los Angeles Times that administration officials used a federally funded White House computer system, nicknamed Big Brother, to help the Democratic National Committee track political contributors and raise reelection campaign funds. Deputy White House press secretary Barry Toiv insists the computer database, which contains more than 350,000 people, including large political donors, Democratic campaign workers, and visitors to the White House, "was used only for official purposes" and "was not used by the White House in any kind of fund-raising capacity."

The Times reported in a page-one story that people familiar with the database concede that "during the last two years DNC workers routinely used the computer system as a fund-raising tool to recruit prospective donors and to solicit large contributions."

Elsewhere, wide-spread rumors that White House press secretary Mike McCurry will be stepping down in the next few weeks are "way off the mark," says a reliable White House staffer. "He's told associates that he may not want to be press secretary for the entire term - that's all he's said," emails the staffer to the Drudge Report.

McCurry is in the middle of a storm for relaying inaccurate information to reporters during his daily press briefings, now humorously nicknamed "press beatings" inside the White House.